


Please Remember Me

by orphan_account



Series: I Will Make You Hurt [3]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Mentions of Erwin Smith/Levi - Freeform, Mpreg, Multi, armin is an omega, christ what do we have here, eren is still pissed, fuck okay im sorry but i have to introduce ocs, his son is not, no one is happy, reiner and armin had a baby and now all this shit has to go down, x4 here, yeah remember how YAWNAL was upsetting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-20
Updated: 2014-07-20
Packaged: 2018-02-06 16:04:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1863873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At 16 years old, Reagan Arlert is ready to go beyond the walls. With Reiner's legacy bearing down on him and the ever distrustful glare of his step father following his every move, can he shed the scars left by crimes he did not commit? And what happens when an old grudge spills fresh blood?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Please Remember Me

**Author's Note:**

> UGH okay so this was supposed to be out weeks ago but i kept scrapping it because i wasnt satisfied with what i had, and i would never want to just slap something out to you guys for the sake of getting it out there. i want to give you guys something GOOD, and with the plot ive laid out, i think you guys will enjoy what ive got in store
> 
> so welcome to the first chapter of 'please remember me' (title taken from scotty mccreery's cover of some other country singers song i think, whatever). other than this chapter, its going to be focused on reagans first time outside the walls, as a fully trained member of the reinvented survey corps. im going to try and keep the chapters after this at 10000 words in length, so i dont know how often this thing will be updated. i want to see the end come around before school starts, definitely.
> 
> as always, your feedback is going to be my fuel, so please comment or leave a kudos or a bookmark. i dont even care if you just want to say you hate the damn thing- your opinions matter. enjoy!

_And once there was an animal,_   
_It had a son that mowed the lawn._   
_The son was an ok guy,_   
_They had a pet dragonfly._   
_The dragonfly it ran away,_   
_But it came back with a story to say._

_\- "Dirty Paws", Of Monsters And Men_

 

* * *

 

On nights like this, Armin didn't know how he'd ever manage to find sleep again. Shadows pressed around him like cool blankets, carried by a late wind that bore the telltale bite of a fast winter, and he knew he should close the windows, but Reagan was crying. He put his baby above everything else, as he always would, and even in the darkness of his little home when the screeching went on for the third night in a row, he would readily sacrifice his own comfort to soothe his son. So he went, barefoot, down the cold wooden floors, and made the short trip to the nursery.

Reagan was almost a year old, and growing fast. Already, Armin could tell that his hair would be just as blond as everyone had expected, though perhaps a touch closer to his own honey-gold as opposed to Reiner's ashy blond. His eyes were still a dark, thundercloud blue- the same colour they'd been from birth, and the same colour they'd be until up around his third birthday. Armin was praying for blue eyes, unsure of how he'd be able to handle Reagan having that strange tawny gaze, or how Eren would handle it- Eren, who tried to be understanding but couldn't see beyond black and white, right and wrong. Ray was all smiles and spit bubbles and big crocodile tears at this point in his life, but Armin's friend just couldn't seem to get over the hurdle that was what had happened leading up to Reagan's birth, and sometimes it left Armin with the fear that he'd never be able to get two people that he loved the most in the world to love each other. He needed whatever kind of a family that he could get, and with Reiner gone, Erwin shell-shocked from Levi's death, and Eren twisted from Reiner's betrayal, he was running out of people he could count on.

Thank God for Mikasa and Jean. Mikasa was a strong contender for Reagan's love, to the point where it almost left Armin a little jealous of how starry-eyed Ray would get in her presence. She was absolutely crazy about him, dropping the battle-worn shell of a soldier for a few precious hours with her nephew, letting a motherly side take over that the omega would thank a Heaven he wasn't sure of over and over again for. Jean was a kind of estranged uncle in Reagan's life; busy preparing to put himself in the best position to be selected as second-in-command, since it looked as though Erwin wouldn't be holding his rank for much longer. Jean had tried to bribe Reagan for his affection with toys, treats, and the occasional gift from his mother, all to no avail. Reagan would tolerate him, but more often than not the baby would wail whenever confronted with the alpha, leaving Armin to swoop in and reassure the both of them that everything would be alright. 

And here the cycle began again, the cycle of reassurance and rest, only for all of Armin's soothing and cooing to fade from Reagan's tired little body in maybe four, five more hours. Armin didn't mind. He'd hold his son all night, if he had to. This boy deserved everything his single father could give him.

"Oh, baby," he sighed, reaching into the small wooden crib and lifting the infant out, cradling him to his chest with a soft hum. "I know, I know." It was what he always said. Maybe he didn't know the exact reason that Ray was crying, what with the lack of smell that would indicate a need for a clean diaper, but he knew what it was like to be able to do nothing more but sit and cry until someone came to comfort him. That someone used to have strong arms and dry hands, and that someone had dwarfed him in height but had only ever once intimidated him, back when he was still pregnant and worried that his mate needed his bandages changed.

Bandages for wounds that had either healed impossibly quickly, or might have never been there at all.

The blond hugged his son, always gentle, and shifted his weight to rock the baby back and forth. Back when he'd been pregnant, the motion of his walking had sent Reagan to sleep in the womb, and the light swaying back and forth could still have him out in a matter of minutes. Armin hadn't had a full night's sleep in God knew how long, but Ray never kept him up for more than half an hour at the most. For such a fussy little thing, he had the biggest soft spot for his dad. Armin hoped it would stay.

" _You are my sunshine, my only sunshine_ ," Armin murmured, lips soft against Reagan's forehead. The baby was still squirming in his hold, likely overtired and angry at waking up, but the omega knew that soon enough the song and the rocking would put him to sleep. He'd picked up the lullabye from Mikasa, who'd told him with a worn smile that her dad used to sing it, back when she'd been allowed to be a happy little girl. 

"It fits," she'd told him, running her fingers through Armin's newly-cropped hair to make sure the length was even. She was quickly settling back into her old ways of coddling and taking care of her boys, even though Eren still fought her off when she tried to make him eat or rest after a training session. "'Sunshine', 'Ray'. I think it works."

"It does," Armin had said to her, genuinely smiling. Even though he'd been freshly laden with the stress of being a parent, he no longer had Reiner's secret weighing him down. He was being offered a paid leave, thanks to Erwin's arguing with the higher-ups, and he knew he had the full support of the full Survey Corps. Many of them adored the idea of a baby, since it was so unlikely that they'd ever see any children of their own. "I don't know if I'll be able to sing it as well as you can, though."

At that, Mikasa had swatted lightly at his head, messing his new haircut. Eren would be pissed about it later, but Armin would take the short hair over Reagan tugging at the longer locks. "Armin," she'd said, expression grave. "If anyone could sing half as well as you can, they wouldn't need to fight for a living in the military."

He'd blushed, and that had been the end of it. So now here he was, singing to his little Ray of sunshine, watching as the moon shone bone-white over the lip of Wall Rose. 

" _You make me happy_ ," he crooned, " _when skies are gray..._ "  
  
How gray had the skies been, that day Reiner had proposed to him? He remembered sunlight in the late afternoon, burning the trees with orange fire and setting the land ablaze in dusk, though it could never compare to the hungry roar of the fire that ate their little hideaway. In the morning, he thought the skies had been dove white. Gentle, in the way autumn usually seemed in comparison to the slate-gray of winter. 

How gray were the skies, now?

" _You never know, dear, how much I love you._ "

Oh, he'd loved Reiner. Some nights he would tell himself that he didn't anymore, that he loved the warmth of their son and nothing else about the monster that had held him at night, but there were days when the sun wouldn't be strong enough to reach his bones and he'd wish for the living furnace that had been his mate. He missed the embraces, the kisses, the sweet words and the feeling of being safe, before he'd known that every day was spent with a killer.

" _Please..._ "

He wanted the house in the woods, the house with the husband and the three kids and the bliss of ignorance. He wanted to stop thinking, to stop knowing that what he'd done had been for the best, to stop seeing the blood caked beneath his nails after cleaning a bird or a fish that would later go in the belly of his son, the son of the man who had killed thousands in his quest to find that house in the woods Armin had always wanted.

The son that could never be a normal boy, because his father had not been a normal man.

Armin swallowed thickly, realizing that he'd been staring at the moon without blinking. His rocking had stopped, but Reagan was already asleep, snuffling softly with his small face pressed to Armin's collar. The omega let out a deep breath, lowering his child back into the crib and tucking the blanket around him, still amazed that he'd grown so quickly in what seemed like such a short amount of time. He stubbornly refused to look at the missing toe on his right foot.

" _... Don't take my sunshine away._ "

**Author's Note:**

> i am armin-subvert on tumblr, and i track the YAWNAL tag for things having to do with this series


End file.
